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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director 

Water-supply Paper 345— D 



GROUND WATER FOR IRRIGATION 

IN THE 

VALLEY OF NORTH FORK OF CANADIAN RIVER 
NEAR OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 



A. T. SCHWENNESEN 



Contributions to the Hydrology of the United States, 1914 — D 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1914 



Monograph 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

GEORGE OTIS SMITH, Director 



Water-supply Paper 345— D 



GROUND WATER FOR IRRIGATION 

IN THE 

VALLEY OF NORTH FORK OF CANADIAN RIVER 
NEAR OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA 



A. T. SCHWENNESEN 



Contributions to the Hydrology of the United States, 1914 — D 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1914 



7 



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CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Introduction 41 

Geologic outline 42 

Occurrence and quantity of water 43 

Quality of water 46 

Irrigation 48 



ILLUSTRATION. 



Page. 



Plate III. Map showing distribution of principal water-bearing deposits in 

the vicinity of Oklahoma City, Okla 42 



n. OF D, 



^ 



5;^GR0UND WATER FOR IRRIGATION IN THE VALLEY OF 
NORTH FORK OF CANADIAN RIVER NEAR OKLAHOMA 
CITY, OKLAHOMA. 



By A. T. SCHWENNESEN. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The North Fork of Canadian River is formed by the union of WoK 
and Beaver creeks in Woodward County, in the northwestern part of 
Oklahoma. It flows diagonally across the State in a southeasterly 
direction for 300 miles and joins Canadian River near Eufaula, in 
the southern part of Mcintosh County. The river follows a mean- 
dering course through a narrow alluvium-filled valley. The area 
discussed in this paper is the 80-mile stretch of river valley which 
extends from Elreno, in Canadian County, through Oklahoma and 
Lincoln counties to Shawnee, in Pottawatomie County. This part 
of the valley has an average width of about If miles and an area of 
about 140 square miles, and on account of its level surface and fertile 
soil it contains some of the most prosperous farms in the State. 
Oklahoma City, the capital and largest city of the State, with a popu- 
lation in 1910 of 64,205, is situated on the North Fork of Canadian 
River in the southwestern part of Oklahoma County, near the geo- 
graphic center of the State. It is a typical inland city supported 
chiefly by meat packing, milling, and other industries dependent on 
the cattle and agricultural business of the country. 

Two other important cities on the North Fork of Canadian River 
are Elreno and Shawnee, the former 30 miles above and the latter 
50 miles below Oklahoma City, measured along the axis of the valley. 
The census for 1910 credits Shawnee with a population of 12,474 
and Elreno with 7,872. Communication between these cities and 
with outside points is furnished by several railroads. An electric 
railroad affords excellent interurban service between Oklahoma City 
and ELreno. 

In the excitement incident to the phenomenal growth of Oklahoma 
City during the years following the opening to settlement of the 
Indian lands the full development of the fertile bottom lands along 
the river was neglected, but now that the city has settled down to a 
normal rate of growth attention has been directed toward the higher 
development of these lands by subdivision into small tracts and 

40554°— 14 41 



42 CONTKIBUTIONS TO HYDROLOGY OF UNITED STATES, 1914. 

more intensive and diversified farming. In regions adjacent to large 
cities market gardening is usually a profitable business. In this 
kind of farming success depends largely on getting the products to 
market when there is the most demand for them, and to do this the 
farmer must be able to control the growth of his crops through the 
timely application of water. 

In Oklahoma the rainfall is not evenly distributed throughout the 
year. Kecords for the last 23 years show an average annual rainfall 
of 31.07 inches, nearly 50 per cent of which falls during April, May, 
June, and July. For ordinary field crops, of which as a rule only 
one crop a year is raised, the planting and harvest seasons can to 
some extent be arranged to conform to such a distribution of rain- 
fall, but for mixed farming, in which planting and harvesting are 
more or less continuous throughout the year, artificial watering be- 
comes necessary. At several farms in the valley water for irrigation 
is pumped from the river, but for the lands not adjacent to the river 
the most practicable source of supply is the ground water, and it was 
for the purpose of obtaining some data on the occurrence and quan- 
tity of the available ground water that a short investigation was 
made in January, 1&14. The writer was able to spend only a few 
days in the field, and the information contained in this paper is the 
result of a hurried reconnaissance of the region with the addition of 
information obtained from a perusal of such literature concerning 
this region as was available. 

GEOLOGIC OUTLINE. 

The vaUey of the North Fork of Canadian River is an alluvium- 
filled trench channeled out of the Carboniferous red shales and sand- 
stones known as the '^Red Beds." The present valley floor, which 
is considerably lower than the general land surface, is bordered on 
both sides by low bluffs. (See PL III.) 

The vaUey fill is from 30 to 60 feet deep and consists of water- 
sorted clays, sands, and gravels. The different materials occur in 
lenticular beds arranged in the irregular fashion of deposits laid down 
by meandering streams with frequently shifting channels. Test holes 
and wells put down in different parts of the vaUey show the character 
and general arrangement of the materials. Several lines of test holes 
across the valley in the vicinity of Oklahoma City ^ show in a gen- 
eral way the following succession of the beds : 

1. Clayey or sandy soil, 2 to 3 feet thick. 

2. Very fine sand, 15 to 20 feet thick. Thickest near the center of the valley and 
giving place to clay near the outer edges of the valley. 

3. Lenticular beds of sandy and gravelly black clay and some beds of quicksand. 

4. Coarse sand with some fine gravel, 5 to 10 feet thick, overlying shale. 

1 Phillips, Hiram, Alvord, J. W., and Billingsley, J. W., A report to the raayor and board of commis- 
sioners of Oklahoma City on an improved water supply for the city, pp. 101-103, 212-215, 1913, 




OKLAHOIvlA C 

CLEVELAND ( 
R. « W. 



THE VICINITY OF OV 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/groundwaterforirOOschw 




RIBUTION OF PRINCIPAL WATER-BEARING DEPOSITS IN THE VICINITY OF OKLAHOMA C 



GROUND WATER NEAR OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. 



43 



The following logs of wells in other parts of the valley show condi- 
tions similar to those at Oklahoma City: 

Generalized log of a group of three tvells at the city waterworks of Elreno, OHa., 30 miles 
above Oklahoma City. 

[Furnished by M. P. Latimer, city engineer.] 



Depth. 



" Gumbo ' ' soil 

Quicksand, water bearing 

Stiff blue clay 

Medium-coarse sand 

Coarse sand 

Shale. 



26J 

34 

42-51 



Log of well at Banner, Okla., 20 miles above Oklahoma City, in the SE. \ sec. 17, T. 12 N., 

R. 6 W. 



[Fiimished by the owTier, John W. Shartel.] 








Thickness. 


Depth. 


Soil 


Feet. 
17 
10 

8 
5 
1 
9 


Feet. 

17 




27 




35 




40 




41 


Gravel and very coarse sand 

Shale. 


50 



At Shawnee, 50 miles below Oklahoma City, at the Atchison, 
Topeka & Santa Fe Railway shops, a 50-foot well ends in clean, coarse 
water-bearing sand very similar to material found near the bottom of 
the w^ells farther up the river. 

OCCURRENCE AND QUANTITY OF WATER. 

Water may be reached almost anywhere in the valley at depths of 
15 to 30 feet. The water-bearing material is clean, coarse sand con- 
sisting of well-rounded quartz grains with some small rounded peb- 
bles, but usually not enough for the material to be termed gravel. 
The well sections given above show the coarsest material to occur at 
the bottom, nearest the bedrock. 

Many wells have been sunk in the valley alluvium, both for domestic 
and for industrial supplies. Bored wells are in most general use, but 
dug and driven wells are also used to some extent. The material is 
not self-sustaining, and therefore all wells must be curbed or cased to 
prevent caving. The best wells are usually sunk to bedrock to get 
the benefit of the full thickness of the water-bearing material. Where 
only small amounts of water are used, as for domestic supplies, a 



44 CONTRIBUTIONS TO HYDROLOGY OF UNITED STATES^ 1914. 

single well is usually adequate, but where large amounts are required, 
as for industrial purposes, it has generally been found necessary to 
have several wells, usually grouped so that they can be connected 
together and pumped by means of a single pumping plant. On 
account of the irregular distribution of the coarse sands some wells 
will not yield as freely as others, and occasionally a well may be a 
failure by missing the water-bearing sand entirely, but in general the 
chances for getting a supply in ahuost any part of the valley are 
thought to be good. The yield and other data in regard to some of 
the largest well systems in the valley alluvium are given in Table 1. 



GROUND WATER NEAR OKLAHOMA CITY^ OKLA. 



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46 CON-TEIBUTIONS TO HYDROLOGY OF UNITED STATES, 1914. 

Water withdrawn from the underground supply is replaced by the 
downward percolation of rain w^ater that falls on the valley surface, 
by seepage from the North Fork of Canadian River, and by seepage 
from tributary streams in their course across the valley. The amount 
of water contributed to the underground supply from these several 
sources depends upon the permeability of the soil. Much of the soil 
in the valley is sandy and porous and in the rainy seasons absorbs 
water in considerable quantities. 

In considering the feasibility of developing a water supply for 
Oklahoma City from shallow wells in the valley alluvium the en- 
gineers ^ emplo3^ed by the city made some estimates on the yearly 
accretions to the ground-water supply. On the basis of experiments 
made to determine the porosity of the valley fill and with various 
assumptions, ranging from 15 to 40 per cent, as to the proportion of the 
rainfall which percolates to the ground-water level, they estimated 
that the additions to the ground-water supply would be equal to a 
layer of water 8 to 16 inches deep over the whole valley area in 
average years and 4 to 8 inches in the driest years. 

QUALITY OF WATER. 

Table 2 shows the composition of the water from some wells in the 
alluvium of the valley of the North Fork of Canadian River. 

1 Phillips, Alvord, and Billingsley, op. cit., pp. 98-118. 



GROUND WATER NEAR OKLAHOMA CITY^ OKLA. 



47 



X2 W! 









aoat4 



o 






-2 



eo CO ^ 05 t^ (M ^ 












00500(N Tr 



M^(N(N<M(>J 



o"a 

rt «3 O 

lis 






H cq CO 'a' "5 O c- 



rs 



go cS 






^ S r-, ?3 












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48 CONTRIBUTIONS TO HYDROLOGY OF UNITED STATES^ 1914. 

All these waters are satisfactory for irrigation. According to a 
classification based on the relative harmfulness of the most common 
substances detrimental to plant growth, given by Stabler/ the waters 
represented by Nos. 1 and 5 may be classed as ''good/' and in using 
them no special care needs to be taken to prevent alkali accumulation 
in the soil. The remainmg five w^aters may be classed as ''fair/' and 
experience in different parts of the United States has shown that in 
the use of such waters special care has generally been found necessary 
to prevent gradual alkali accumulation except on loose soil with free 
drainage. Where the valley soil is sandy, waters whose analyses 
approximate those of Nos. 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 could safely be used with- 
out special precautions, but on heavy soil some drainage facilities 
would probably be necessary. As none of the valley lands are 
located far from the river and as the level of the water in the river is 
considerably lower than the valley surface, the river will serve as a 
convenient outlet of such drainage ditches as are found to be neces- 
sary 

IRRIGATION. 

As to the feasibility of irrigating considerable areas of the valley 
land there can be no question. The commission houses of Oklahoma 
City import large quantities of vegetables and small fruits the year 
round. Much of this produce could well be raised at home with 
profit to both consumer and producer. The excellent service offered 
by the interurban electric railway which parallels the valley between 
Oklahoma City and Elreno affords a means of gettmg perishable 
products to market with frequency and dispatch. Alfalfa and some 
other field crops which are now raised in the valley without irrigation 
would probably produce enough more if irrigated to warrant the 
outlay for pumping plants. 

Very little irrigation has been done in the valley of the North Fork 
of Canadian River up to the present time. At the Blake farm, near 
Elreno, and at the La Grange farm, near Yukon, water for irrigation 
is pumped from the river, and on the farm of John W. Shartel, near 
Banner, in the SE. J sec. 17, T. 12 N., R. 6 W., water for irrigation is 
pumped from wells in the valley alluvium. On the Shartel farm there 
are three pumpmg plants, the combined output of which m 1913 was 
about 1,300 gallons a mmute, with which 80 acres of land was irrigated 
during part of the summer. The largest of these plants is equipped 
with, a 15-horsepower direct-current electric motor belted to a 7-inch 
American centrifugal pump set in a pit at the water level, 15 feet 
below the surface. The water supply is drawn from a group of nine 
wells, spaced 25 feet apart and connected to a common suction main 

1 stabler, Herman, Some stream waters of the western United States, with chapters on sediment carried 
by the Rio Grande and the industrial application of water analyses: U. S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply 
Paper 274, pp. 177-181, 1911. 



GROUND WATER NEAR OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. 49 

laid in a drift, or ''tunnel/' driven out from the pump pit at water 
level. Weir measurements of the discharge from four of these wells, 
made by the chief engineer of the Oklahoma Railway Co., showed an 
output of 800 gallons a minute. On account of a smaller drawdown, 
the output is probably considerably more when all the wells are in use. 
The wells are 18 inches in diameter and 50 feet deep and extend to 
bedrock. They are of a modified type of the so-called gravel-wall 
well. The ordinary gravel -wall well, used where the water occurs 
in sand, consists essentially of a perforated casing surrounded by a 
cylinder of gravel or crushed rock that keeps the sand from crowding 
against the casing and entering the perforations. The casing used 
in the Shartel well is 10 inches in diameter and is perforated with 
f -inch round holes and covered with 6-inch wire screen to keep out the 
crushed rock, which is of ^-inch size. An 18-inch cylinder of 4-mesh ' 
wire screen surrounds the zone of crushed rock and holds it against 
the casing. The two smaller plants discharge into a reservoir. Each 
is equipped with a 5-horsepower direct-current electric motor, direct- 
connected to a 2i-inch centrifugal pump having a capacity of 250 
gallons a minute and supplied from two wells connected together. 

The cost of each of the smaller plants, including the wells, pump, 
and motor, is given by the owner as approximately $500. The large 
plant cost $3,000, making a total cost of $4,000 for the three plants. 
The electric current is taken from the trolley line of the Oklahoma 
Railway Co. At 5 cents a kilowatt-hour the cost for power in pump- 
ing from a depth of 30 feet is $2.35 an acre-foot of water lifted. When 
more development creates a greater demand for electric power the 
cost can probably be materially reduced. The Oklahoma City Gas 
& Electric Co. is tentatively considering a plan whereby consumers 
will be furnished with current for 3 cents a kilowatt-hour or less, 
delivered at the city limits, the consumers to build their own trans- 
mission line. Some such plan for reducing the cost of electric power 
can probably be worked out provided the necessary cooperation of 
the farmers is obtained. Those who prefer to use internal-combustion 
engines can obtain cheap fuel in the form of crude oil from the oil 
fields near by at $1.05 a barrel. 

Tlie engineers engaged to plan a water-supply system for Oklahoma 
City advised against the development of a supply from shallow wells 
in the valley alluvium, but the utilization of the ground water for 
irrigation involves an entirely different problem for the following 
reasons : For a city supply it is desirable to have the wells concen- 
trated within a comparatively small area in order to minimize the 
expense for pipe lines, rights of way, etc. To obtain the amount of 
water needed to supply the city they found that it would be necessary 
to spread the system over a large area. In irrigation from small indi- 
vidual plants, each situated near the land which it is to supply, the 



50 CONTRIBUTIONS TO HYDROLOGY OF UNITED STATES, 1914. 

plants become widely distributed, and pumping is not concentrated 
at any particular point, so that it is possible to utilize more nearly 
the entire supply. Also, for city use the drain on the ground-water 
supply is continuous the year round, while for irrigation any deple- 
tion of the supply in the dry season would be replenished in the rainy 
months, when the demand for water is small. Moreover, in irrigation 
a part of the pumped water percolates to water level, where it is avail- 
able for future use. 

According to the lowest estimate made by the engineers at Okla- 
homa City, the annual accretion to the ground-water supply, part of 
which is contributed by the downward percolation of rain water that 
falls on the surface and part by seepage from the river, is equal to 
a depth of about 8 inches of water on the valley surface in average 
years and about 4 inches in the dry est years on record. The calcu- 
lations of the part added by direct rainfall are based on the theo- 
retic assumption that 15 per cent of the rain that falls on the sur- 
face reaches the ground-water level, and the calculations of the 
amount that seeps from the river are based on the determination of 
the porosity of the sands in the portion of the valley considered in 
the engineers' report. 

The conditions are nearly uniform throughout the valley, from 
Elreno to Shawnee, and it is believed that any estimate made for 
the vicinity of Oklahoma City can be applied in general to the larger 
area covered by the present paper. The data at hand, therefore, in- 
dicate that the annual supply of ground water is sufficient for the irri- 
gation of a large acreage between Elreno and Shawnee if the irri- 
gated tracts are widely distributed, but that exhaustion or depletion 
of the supply is likely to occur locally if the irrigated tracts are too 
closely grouped. As the investigation of the accretions to the ground 
water has not been exhaustive, and as estimates of these accretions 
are at best liable to be considerably in error, it would obviously be 
unwise to make initial irrigation developments on as large a scale as 
the estimates would seem to warrant. It is therefore recommended 
that at first not over 10,000 acres of land in the valley be put under 
irrigation and in no locahty much more than 80 acres to the square 
mile. After irrigation on this scale has been carried on successfully 
for a period of years and the ground-water level has not been greatly 
lowered thereby, further developments may be justified. 

Prospective irrigators should be cautioned against making large 
outlays for pumping installations without duly considering all the 
factors of cost that are involved. The costs of installing and oper- 
ating an irrigation system where the water is pumped from wells are 
numerous and complex. The initial outlay, which includes the cost 
of wells, pumps, and engines, in addition to the cost of grading the 



GROUND WATER NEAR OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLA. 51 

land and constructing ditches, flumes, or pipe lines, may be a large 
fraction of the original value of the land and in some places may even 
exceed it. The pumping costs are made up of the running expenses, 
such as the cost of power, lubricating oil, repairs, and attendance, 
which are incurred only when the plant is in operation, and of certain 
fixed charges, such as interest on the investment, taxes, and depre- 
ciation. Where irrigation is used merely to supplement the rainfall 
in the raising of ordinary field crops, these fixed charges may consti- 
tute a large part of the cost of water and often determine the 
financial success or failure of the project. 

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